POS0799-HPR EFFECTIVENESS OF AN INTERDISCIPLINARY HEALTH PROMOTION EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM IN IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF INDIVIDUALS WITH FIBROMYALGIA IN BRAZIL: A RANDOMIZED CLINICAL TRIAL OF AMIGOS DE FIBRO
Authors: M. Antunes, F. C. N. Loures, A. Schmitt, E. Frutos-Bernal, A. M. Martín-Nogueras, A. Pasqual Marques
Journal: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2023)

<h3>Background</h3> "Amigos de Fibro" (Fibro Friends), is a recent and innovative program created from the joint action of patients and health professionals, which can be an effective educational tool to be implemented in primary health care centers, promoting self-care, quality of life and health promotion in individuals with fibromyalgia in Brazil. <h3>Objectives</h3> Evaluate the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary health promotion educational program called "Amigos de Fibro" in improving pain intensity, symptom severity, quality of life, sleep quality and self-care agency in individuals with fibromyalgia in Brazil. <h3>Methods</h3> A randomized clinical trial was carried out with 24 participants divided into two groups: the experimental group (EG) and the control group (CG). The EG group held online meetings through the Google Meet platform with an interdisciplinary team (10 professionals) that worked in primary health care in Brazil, where they gave lectures and held debates and dynamics on the importance of health promotion and self-care in fibromyalgia. In addition, participants performed a physical exercise protocol. The "Amigos de Fibro" protocol has been previously published and showed good agreement. The control group (CG) received an education and self-care e-book for fibromyalgia that addressed information similar to the EG (<i>http://www.amigosdefibro.com.br</i>). Participants were assessed pre and post-intervention. A descriptive analysis of the data was performed, as well as the differences of the independent variables between the intervention and control groups were studied using Student's t test for independent samples. A significance level of 5% was adopted. <h3>Results</h3> The mean age of the participants was 38.7±9.4 years for the EG and 44.9±10.6 for the CG, all (100%) of whom were female in both groups. Compared to the baseline, all EG variables and only the FIQ symptoms domain of the CG showed significant improvements (p&lt;0.005), however, the other CG variables showed improvements, but they were not significant (Table 1). <h3>Conclusion</h3> "Amigos de Fibro", a light technology in health, was considered with good results and improvement of all studied variables that address the main aspects that promote the health of individuals with fibromyalgia and, therefore, being considered valid for use by health professionals with the target public in primary health care in Brazil, enabling them to act as health promoting agents. Our next steps are to expand knowledge of this program to other countries. <h3>References</h3> [1]Antunes MD, Schmitt ACB, Marques AP. Amigos de Fibro (Fibro Friends): development of an educational program for the health promotion of fibromyalgia patients. Primary Health Care Research &amp; Development. 2022;23(e44):1–7. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1463423621000773 [2]Antunes MD, Schmitt ACB, Marques AP. Amigos de Fibro (Fibro Friends): Validation of an Educational Program to Promote Health in Fibromyalgia. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022;19(9):e5297. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095297 <h3>Acknowledgements</h3> This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001 <h3>Disclosure of Interests</h3> None Declared.